Why Kisiis roast ‘witches’ Kisiis are famous for many things. Their bananas, for instance, or cheating in national exams! Then there is that not-so-small matter of their short temper. You have probably heard that you’ll hardly get a Kisii who smokes and that the bride price of a Kisii girl will rise or fall depending on her level of education. Then there is their patriarchy. The male dominance is such that women rarely rise to elective posts. But what bedevils Kisiis most is the notoriety of witchcraft, perhaps outpacing Kambas who have to contend with a silver medal. Just why is it that it is in Kisii that witchcraft is so rampant to the extent of the elderly being doused in petrol, necklaced with tyres and lynched before being set ablaze? It is hard for someone outside this community to understand why such barbaric acts are always cheered. Witches have a special place among the Kisii. For one, it is claimed that they have magical powers. A witch, it is alleged, can influence a student’s performance in school. A neighbour with ‘bad eye’ can dictate how much bananas you will harvest, weather conditions notwithstanding. They can even determine, apparently, how much milk your cows will produce. Kisii witches are blamed for deaths in the community, even if one is killed in a road accident or succumbs to a serious illness. They are said to have a book with names of those earmarked for death. Kisii witches are said to exhume buried bodies for use in rituals. They have been associated with cannibalism, explaining the resurfacing of soil encrusted coffins in homesteads or by riversides. In the 1990s coffins were alleged used to ripen bananas. There are also fears that some traditional brews in Kisii are brewed using body parts and stirred with arms of the dead to cast a spell that makes the drinkers loyal customers. Did you hear that innards are used to rein in straying husbands, grow businesses or make children brighter in school? Joseph Nyasani, a Catholic University of Nairobi philosophy professor, notes in, The Meaning and Implications of Life and Death in Africa: A Psycho-Philosophical Reflection that “There is a clear perception that a night runner can bewitch and bring about someone’s death following frequent visits to the victim’s home, or that a witchdoctor has powers to kill through the recitation of mumbo-jumbo incantations and planting objects of magic and charms in someone’s home.”
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:11:05 +0000
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